True Detective director teams with Emma Stone for new dark comedy series on Netflix

True Detective director Cary Fukunaga is back with a new, slightly controversial and dark series on Netflix, Maniac.

The show stars Emma Stone (La La Land) and Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall St.) as two patients in a mental institution who use their imagination to escape the reality of their situation. The story itself focuses on the fantasy versions of their lives as they perceive it. Maniac is based on a Norwegian series that starred comedian Espen Lervaag as a mental patient who spent half of his time in his own fantasy world and the rest of it within the confines of the institution. The series ran for two seasons.

Although Fukunaga has proven himself as a director multiple times with projects like the Golden Globe-nominated Beasts of No Nation, he has spoken at length about how difficult working on True Detective was. True Detective marked the first time Fukunaga worked on a TV series and based on reports throughout production, it wasn’t an easy gig for Fukunaga. In a Vanity Fair profile, creator and solitary writer Nic Pizzolatto was described as an “uncompromising auteur.” When Fukunaga didn’t return for a second season, there were reports it was because of his tense relationship with Pizzolatto, but that was never confirmed.

Much like the first season of True Detective, Fukunaga won’t have any involvement in the writing process. Patrick Sommerville (The Leftovers) will write the entire series.

Filming has begun on Maniac and is expected to wrap up just before Thanksgiving. Expect it to debut on Netflix sometime next year.